Canvas: Roles and Permissions

What roles and permissions are available in Canvas?

In Canvas at Rice University, permissions allow users to access certain features and perform certain functions. Roles are essentially collections of permissions set at the system, campus, school, and department levels (i.e., roles cannot be modified by instructors).

A user's permissions are determined by the role(s) the user is assigned. Roles and their permissions are cumulative. Consequently, if you add someone to your course site multiple times, assigning that person a different role each time, he or she will have the combined permissions of each role you assigned.

Important: Users in the Teacher, TA, and Grader roles can view and edit student grade information. Any Non-Rice user who will hold one of these roles must complete the FERPA Tutorial and submit the Rice University Instructor:Teaching Assistant Agreement before being assigned to the role in Canvas. The document needed for a Non-Rice TA is linked at: RiceUniversityInstructor:TeachingAssistantAgreement.docx

Following are the course roles currently available at Rice:

ROLE	PERMISSIONS
Teacher	For instructors and assistants who need full access to the Canvas features for instruction
Librarian	Assistants who need access to the tools necessary to assist in managing course content. Has limited ability to interact with students and has no access to grades or grading.
TA	Has access to all Canvas features for instruction, with exception to managing announcements and moderating outcomes and grades.
Non-grading TA	For teaching assistants who do not need the ability to grade.
Grader	For individuals who will be grading items in Canvas. The Grader role is based on the TA role, but has more limited permissions enabled. Graders can view all course content including assignments, quizzes, and discussions; however, unlike users in the TA role, Graders cannot edit course content.
Designer	For instructional designers (and staff with similar responsibilities) who write and manage course content, but do not actually teach courses or grade student work
Student	For students officially enrolled in the course only.
Observer	For users who have no official role in the course, but who are observing a student's behavior and progress in a course. For more information see What is the Observer Role in the Canvas Guides.

For specific permissions see below:

PERMISSIONS	STUDENT	TA	GRADER	NON-GRADING TA	TEACHER	DESIGNER	LIBRARIAN
Add, edit, and delete events on the course calendar	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO
Add/remove other teachers, course designers, or TAs to the course	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO
Add/remove students from the course	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO
Change course status	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO
Create and edit assessing rubrics	NO	YES	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO
Create student collaborations	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO
Create web conferences	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO
Edit grades	NO	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO
LTI add and edit	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
Manage (add/edit/delete) assignments and quizzes	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO
Manage (add/edit/delete) course files	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Manage (add/edit/delete) pages	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Manage (add/edit/delete) course sections	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO
Manage (add/edit/delete) groups	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO
Manage alerts	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO
Manage all other course content	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES
Manage learning outcomes	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO
Moderate grades	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO
Moderate discussions (delete/edit other's posts, lock topics)	NO	YES	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO
Post to discussions	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Read SIS data	NO	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO
See the list of users	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
Send messages to individual course members	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
Send messages to the entire class	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
View all grades	NO	YES	YES	NO	YES	NO	NO
View all students' submissions and make comments on them	NO	YES	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO
View analytics pages	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
View and link to question banks	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
View announcements	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
View discussions	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
View the group pages of all student groups	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO
View usage reports for the course	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO